Posts for bryzgalov

After three consecutive losses to their three biggest rivals in a little over three days, the Flyers finally got a win. So you should totally… not get excited, because they are still in the midst of what is shaping up to be a horrifically disappointing season.

Let’s talk about a Brayden Schenn’s game-saving save: Before the opening faceoff, a super focused Schenn told Brian Engblom that this was a must-win game for the Flyers. And while that sort of clichéity is nothing new in pre-game rinkside interviews, Schenn backed it up in the third period with the Flyers holding a 3-2 lead when he somehow stopped a puck that had gotten by Bryz from crossing the goal line:

No goal

Afterwards, scriptuals asked Bryz about the assist:

Q: Tell me about the save that Brayden Schenn made for you in the third period.

Big save! Big save.

Q: How about yours on Cody Hodgson?

Big save! Big save.

Big saves, indeed.

Of course, Bryz was less excited about the Sabres' second goal. He seemingly yelled "dumb shit" as he slammed his stick over the crossbar. Might he have been referring to Kimmo Timonen's suspect handling of a 2-on-1? Probably.

I know I’m hard on Bryz for both his play and flakiness, but I still can’t help enjoying the disdain with which he answers reporters’ nonsensical questions. Check out his post-game presser, along with a very predictable song, after the jump.

Four goals on 20 shots. And before the Type OB nutbags comment that I’m an idiot who knows nothing about hockey and oh my god we’re not allowed to blame a specific player ever instead we’ll just blame a “unit” like the “defense” or “power play” this way we don’t offend a player whose authentic jersey with a tie-down strap cost me $220… hear me out.

Callahan’s (first) goal: Just piss poor team defense by the Flyers allows the Rangers to move the puck from end to end virtually unimpeded, which is what happens when you have Braydon Coburn give a lackadaisical effort at the blue line on a penalty kill. That leaves the Rangers with an easy two-on-one down low, and Bryz’s post-to-post animation was slow to load. 1-0 Rangers.

Callahan’s (second) goal: Horrible pass from Brayden Schenn that eludes Wayne Simmonds, followed by a terrible line change and piss-poor back-checking from Schenn and Erik Gustafffsonsonsffosnfosfson, who is the only defenseman in the league that wouldn’t have put Callahan’s head through the crossbar on this play. Bryz, for some reason, never leaves his knees and the right post as he becomes to the first goaltender since NHL 94 to get beat on that move. 2-2.

Agreed. He’s insanely overrated and his execution and effort on this goal looks like something out of an all-star game. Incredibly, Bryz, again, parks himself on the right post after missing the poke check and gets beat on the NHL 94 move.

After the game, Bryz said he couldn't afford to say what needs to improve. But truth is, the forwards, the defense and the goalie are to blame.

Stick thrower Ilya Bryzgalov was a guest on the Mike and Ike Show on WIP today, seemingly to promote his upcoming autograph signing at the Sports Vault in the King of Prussia Mall this Sunday (take a little gander at and then click that ad over the right ——>). Among the topics discussed were assimilating into Philly, the rough schedule, and, of course, meteors.

Understand what’s expected of you here now?

“I needed some time to understand new environment. How it works here.”

“I understand what I have to expect from the people who work here, who cheer for the team, what they expect from me.”

In other words: what his bosses and fans want. Bryz, both publicly and not-so publicly, struggled to adjust to being a Flyer last year.

Tired?

“I just wake up in the morning today and think about what happened last night, I realize, watching the schedule, like, oh my God, for 31 days, we play 19 games. 19. It’s a lot. Usually like during the normal season you play maximum games in a month– 15. That’s four games difference, and 12 of them we play on the road. I feel like exhausted, and I’m pretty sure the team feels the same way. It’s a crazy schedule, lots of travel, lots of back-to-back games. Sometimes it’s tough to find energy and emotions to play some games. You know it’s very important game, but nothing left inside you. You need time to sit and regroup.”

“Do you think it’s fun to lose? No. we don’t want to lose. We want to win. Sometimes you just can’t– sometimes just tired, bounces don’t go your way.”

Time off?

“I don’t have that luxury. We gotta do what you go to do. We got to give our best every night. Whatever the team need. We always try to give our best. But sometimes we’re not machines.”

How about that meteor in Russia?

“It’s amazing. Probably every day our atmosphere was penetrated with smaller sized meteors and just burned high in the atmosphere. But this is much bigger size, but not that big that it struck the earth and didn’t… [inaudible] like back in the days when dinosaurs was destroyed. It’s one thing that's very interesting. On the other hand, it’s dangerous. And you know we can’t protect ourselves from the space danger.”

“The next day, asteroid bigger size fly close to the earth. Make us think… [inaudible] huge speeds in the earth… [inaudible]… it’s going to be a disaster right now… [inaudible] how to recover the earth. I think we need to be thankful and be happy. Enjoy our everyday with our relatives, our wives, kids. Enjoy our work every day.”

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After a six-game road trip that twice took the Flyers to Canada, and coming off an emotional 6-5 win in Pittsburgh the night before, the Orange and Black returned home last night to play the Florida Panthers.

That’s not the lede for this post… that’s the definition for Letdown Game. So, we can sit here and talk about how the Flyers are really inconsistent… or we can just chalk it up to their plane still being on the runway in Pittsburgh when the puck dropped last night. Yeah, let’s do that. And then let’s talk about the goofy goalie.

And again when he was pulled from the game after giving up a fourth goal.

As you may know, I’m not very good at math. But by my unofficial count, Bryz has now thrown his stick three times, given up nine goals, and allowed 11 pucks to cross the goal line (if you count two disallowed goals against the Penguins) in just over 36 hours. It would appear that we've turned back toward negative town. Or, you know, high school.

You’ll notice that Bryz nearly killed the referee, which probably would have been bad. And then that throw. Who throws like that, except for maybe Katniss if she were trying to maim a small Indian child in The Hunger Games?

The second throw was a bit more conventional, sort of a Tom Hanks-spears-a-fish-in-Castaway spear technique… one that almost killed the Flyers’ smokeshow trainer and a Ben Franklin-looking security guard:

Note the equipment guy retreating behind the wall just before Bryz kicked what looked like a floor seat from the Spectrum (for real, can the Comcast Spectacor folks move past that awful 1970s red motif on everything, or is it mandated by Ed Snider?).

Not sure what’s up with Bryz, who apparently irked reporters by initially refusing to speak with the media last night. He eventually came out, and explained his stick throwing (at least on the penalty shot) thusly:

"I was mad because I just missed him on a poke check. I knew he was through it, between the legs, I couldn’t regroup quick enough and it was three-nothing and two-nothing it’s a big difference. I almost had it then it was in the net and I am so upset."

Yeah, this is all going to stop when he hurts someone, that someone being Claude Giroux.

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OK then. Ilya Bryzgalov and Tom Sestito it is. 2-1, good guys. Both goals from Sestito.

Bryz: This was the type of game I was talking about two weeks ago when I said that Bryz never wins a game for the Flyers. The defense put together perhaps their best effort of the season last night, but Bryz made a handful of saves that, quite frankly, he probably wouldn’t have made last season. His lateral quickness, reflexes and decision-making are all much improved. He looks not only stronger, but also is putting himself in better positions to make routine saves. This is the sort of goalie the Flyers are paying for. Of course, you’re not always going to get two goals from Tom Sestito and the Flyers are still inconsistent at both ends of the ice.

Sestito: Now has four career goals. Two of them, last night. In high school, my buddy and four-year linemate, Fran, wasn’t particularly fast or skilled with the puck, but if you gave it to him in front of the net (I always did, of course), he would bury it. Sort of like Sestito last night. He (Sestito) has one move – that simple backhand-five hole jawn, ripped from the user guides of Mylec street hockey sticks everywhere – but it worked, twice.

If we told you going into the game that Tom Sestito would score two goals. Would you have believed us?

You know, we talk about scoring like being a sniper. And he said if I became a sniper, he would change his name for the Russian last name from Sestito to “Sestitov.”

Sestitov:

Q: Guys joking with you, asking you if you had any other moves? Same move twice.

A: Yeah, I’ve got one. Hopefully no goalies catch on to that. If it works once, then I’m going to keep doing it until it stops working.

It stopped working for Fran sometime around overtime of a semifinals loss to Penncrest in our senior year. Maybe Sestitov will have better luck if the Flyers get that far. [UPDATE: Holy shit– reader Paul was on Penncrest and passes along the game recap to piss me off.]

Stupid questions: You know, sometimes you can’t blame Ilya Bryzgalov for being terse in interviews. A couple weeks ago, he was asked if what he had just seen was Flyers hockey, which is the dumbest sort of sports question a lazy scriptual can ask. And just look at the sort of slop he had to deal with last night:

Was that the kind of win you guys were hoping for?

I think that might have been the lowest scoring shot total the defense kept the opponent to. Was that the focus going in trying to stop the highest scoring offense in the league?

How do you go into [the game] mentally?

What was the key to keeping them out on defense?

It wasn’t until the last two questions that Bryz was finally asked if this is the best he’s felt and if he was injured on a scary-looking play– two questions that actually needed to be asked. Unreal.

Electricity: Peter Laviolette talked about Zac Rinaldo’s fight giving the Flyers some energy. A bolt of energy. Against the Lightning:

Q: Do you think Rinaldo’s fight had any bearing on tonight’s games outcome?

Sure. Zac is a huge bolt of energy that came through the building, the fans, the players, the coaches, and everybody. It was one of those that can really pick up a game and building.

He reminds me of Leonardo DiCaprio playing an impoverished protagonist. I'M NOT NO ONE TO SAY NOTHING LIKE THAT.

Rinaldo mic’d up: Rinaldo was mic’d up, too. You can’t hear much during the fight (ya wanna go?!), but afterwards he asked an official and a Lightning player if he sucker punched B.J. Crombeen while he was on the ground. Awesome video of that, after the jump.

Just 34% of faceoffs won. This Tweet, from HockeyBuzz’s Bill Meltzer, I like:

Bryz: Played well. He is eighth in the league in goals against and eighth in the league in save percentage. Credit where it’s due. He’s kept the Flyers in several games that they had no business being a part of. Now, if only the cap…